Neuroscience in low- and middle-income countries

We seek to collaborate with regional partners and experts in education and science to empower socioeconomically and culturally disadvantaged Oceanic youth. Our mission is to provide high-quality teaching equipment and bespoke science education programs, especially in rural and peri-urban communities. We will strengthen local education systems and promote teaching innovation.

Low levels of education in Oceanic low and middle-income countries (LMICs) represent a major threat to the region’s future security and economic prosperity. The potential skills, industries, and innovation which could subsequently follow from increases in educational participation rates, particularly in the sciences and amongst girls, will be beneficial to current and future trading partners. Solutions are therefore desperately needed to promote and empower youth in the region.

The "Neuroscience in low- and middle-income countries" project will provide teaching equipment and resources, along with hands-on training, to middle and secondary school teachers in Timor-Leste and Kiribati. This will include a focused repertoire of instructions, lesson plans, and associated learning for suitable, basic science demonstrations. Accompanying these resources will be hands-on guidance from experienced science educators in a long-term training program. Our ambition is to provide local teachers with the skills, support, and resources needed to independently implement a modern science curriculum that encourages students to pursue further studies generally, and specifically in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.

After 12 months of this science education program, communities will also be offered access to two additional programs: (1) an engineering and infrastructure project to identify local community needs which could include a science educational element, e.g. installation of solar panels and associated electrical systems or products; and, (2) a student science development project competition in which students will be mentored by their local teachers and visiting scientists to identify a problem in their local community and propose a solution to solve it using technology or scientific principles - the winners and finalists of this competition will have their projects funded and will be flown to Canberra, Australia to participate in an international science and leadership camp (teachers of winning students will accompany them but attend a professional development camp).

Eight countries in Oceania are classified by the World Bank as low or middle-income countries (LMICs)[1], representing over 10 million people[2]. While more than one in three young Australians enrol in university degrees[3], fewer than one in 10 young people from Oceanic LMICs will participate in some level of higher education, and less than half will complete secondary school[4].

[1] World Bank Country and Lending Groups 2017.

[2] UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs World Population Prospects Report, 2015 Revision.

[3] Australian Bureau of Statistics 6227.0 - Education and Work, Australia, 05/2016.

[4] UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Education: 12/2016.

Two of the biggest failures which we are very cognisant of and which many international development programs with a focus on education have are: (1) lack of community consultation and (2) not tailoring educational resources or methods to regional context. To avoid these pitfalls and to ensure the success of this program, we have partnered with local and experienced educators on-the-ground such as universities, local networks of science and education teachers, and education ministry officials. Also see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjZ4A9tU9AE for one of our partner’s work on tailoring science to the local context.

• To increase student engagement and participation in pilot schools, particularly in STEM classes;
• To provide teachers and students with increased confidence in their scientific and educational capacities;
• For teachers in peri-urban and rural areas to acquire new and improved STEM teaching skills and gain familiarity with new teaching equipment and resources;
• To create greater public and professional awareness at the regional and national level in Timore-Leste and Kiribati about the importance of STEM education and literacy; and
• To connect higher education providers with our Australian, New Zealand, and Japanese partners for the purposes of future collaboration and coordination.

(1) Attendance of STEM and general classes; (2) grades in STEM classes; (3) drop-out and retention rates; and (4) proportion of students who indicate and pursue an interest in STEM subjects or further learning (as compared to pre-intervention baseline) - To increase student engagement and participation in pilot schools, particularly in STEM classes

(1) anonymous survey of teachers and students, and (2) qualitative group interviews pre-, mid-, and post-intervention - To provide teachers and students with increased confidence in their scientific and educational capacities

(1) Number of individuals and institutions from Australia, New Zealand, and Japan who participate in the pilot; and (2) number and scale of continuing projects 12, 24, and 36 months post-intervention - To connect higher education providers with our Australian, New Zealand, and Japanese partners for the purposes of future collaboration and coordination

While the technology and resources we wish to provide to schools and teachers are not unique per se, our approach is certainly unique in the sense that it will involve practicing, expert scientists from the surrounding region to mentor and coach teachers and students. Unfortunately, some education initiatives in the past have sent equipment or training resources to educators in Timor-Leste, for example, but have failed to provide adequate support or have not thought through how the schools will make use of the technology, e.g. many rural schools lack access to reliable electricity or running clean water for experiments.

This project is in total agreement with Solve about the importance of technology being human-centred. We believe that the only use of technology that is meaningful in a development (and perhaps general) context is the practical usefulness to the user or the end-beneficiary, in this case teachers and students. We have experience with a wide range of teaching and science apparatuses and resources, and have identified experiments and equipment which will be suitable for rural and peri-rural areas in Oceanic LMICs, e.g. which use very low-power batteries or do not require clean running water or expensive chemicals.

Our solution will be deployed at the local community level, in-person, in-schools, facilitated by highly skilled and experienced scientists and science educators. All program resources, training, and support will be provided for free to the pilot schools and their communities.

Initially this program will be funded via international development funds, in-kind support from universities and scientific instrument suppliers, and private/philanthropic donations. To scale the solution and to ensure ongoing, long-term success, we will partner strongly with local universities and higher education/training organisations, who we will agree to provide further and more advanced in-kind support to in exchange for them recruiting local students and staff to volunteer as facilitators in the program.

Funding has and continues to prove the most limiting factor so far. As a corollary, for the solution to succeed in the long-term, it will therefore be critical to build a good relationship with local universities and higher education providers, since these collaborations will lower the costs of the program insofar as requiring fewer and shorter visits to the countries’ rural areas by our scientists and science educators from Australia, New Zealand, and Japan (since they will then focus on mentoring and accompanying the local facilitators).

The problems facing Oceanic LMICs in education and science literacy are shared by many other LMICs around the world. It is my hope that by appling to become a Solver I can connect with and learn from others working on similar projects. I also think that connecting with an international network who have connections and experiences with other organisations working in or funding projects in the Oceanic region would be immensely helpful.

- Australian Brain Alliance/Australasian Neuroscience Society

- professors and science educators in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan

- local institutions, government departments, science educators, and international development organisations/researchers/workers in Timor-Leste (East Timor) and Kiribati

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